Health

In the last few decades, it has become increasingly evident that conservation, our own health, and the health of wild and domestic animals are all inextricably linked. A single pathogen can wipe out the last populations of an endangered species and, in turn, threaten the stability of local human populations. Thus there is an urgent need to simultaneously address the health of people and animals, recognizing that disease poses challenges to both conservation of the planet's biodiversity and efforts to improve the quality of human life.

Our Goal

Ensure the health of wildlife species around the globe and in our New York zoological parks.

How will we get there?

Since our founding in 1895, WCS has harnessed our veterinary expertise to save wildlife and wild places around the globe. From intensively caring for endangered animals at our New York City zoos and aquarium, to aiding rural communities with livestock health, to monitoring the health status of elusive gorillas in the wild, WCS veterinarians, epidemiologists, and other health science professionals collectively represent an unparalleled constellation of capabilities.

Together, we employ three primary strategies:

Build local capacity to care for and protect the health of wildlife worldwide.

Gather and applying critically needed information to protect the health of wildlife, people, and domestic animals, all as underpinned by environmental stewardship.

Promote policies, guidelines, and best practices to ensure a healthy planet.

Why WCS?

WCS has been the pioneer in promoting wildlife health as critical to saving wildlife and wild places. We develop and implement solutions that achieve long-term conservation success and create a healthier world. By engaging partners across conservation, public health, agriculture, and beyond, we provide critical information that influences policy and action. WCS initiated and remains a leader in the One World – One Health™ interdisciplinary approach.

100years

WCS has more than 100 years of hands-on veterinary work, disease surveillance, and groundbreaking scientific research to its name.

Related News

December 7, 2018

A coalition of major public aquariums has announced that they are opposed to the federal government’s pending issuance of permits to allow repeated seismic blasting along the East Coast in search of offshore oil and gas. Marine scientists are...

October 15, 2018

A team of conservationists from the Royal Veterinary College, WCS, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna published a letter in this week’s edition of the journal Science on the threat...

April 25, 2018

A massive decade-long study of Western Equatorial Africa’s gorillas and chimpanzees has uncovered both good news and bad about our nearest relatives. The good news: there are one third more western lowland gorillas and one tenth more central...

Year End Challenge: $500,000 for Wildlife

Last chance to make a difference in 2018: Your help is crucial to securing the resources to keep wildlife safe and protect the places they call home. Donate by December 31 to help save elephants and other threatened wildlife.